When learning to play a musical instrument, a student is taught how to play using the characteristics of the particular instrument. When learning to play a string instrument with a neck portion, for example a guitar, bass guitar, banjo, ukulele, mandolin and even a cello, double bass, violin or viola, a beginning step often is to learn how to strum, pluck or bow the strings over a body portion of the instrument with one hand while depressing appropriate strings with fingers of the other hand at the correct locations along the neck portion to play or “finger” chords, harmonic intervals or single notes. Fingering chords often requires hand placement that may seem awkward to the student at first. Becoming comfortable with hand and finger placement will generally require practice by the student in order to become proficient at playing the musical instrument.
Once becoming comfortable with the placement of the fingers to finger the chords, it may further be advantageous for the student to memorize the hand and finger placement specific to chords, at least the more common chords. Memorization, including “muscle memory” by which there is an almost automatic correct fingering of the chords without having to consciously think through the placement of each finger to form the appropriate chord, will allow the student to focus on correctly reading or otherwise playing the music, rather than concentrating deliberately on correct finger placement for each chord.
With practice, the chords will become more familiar and the student will be able to switch hand and finger placement with the agility that is often necessary for playing the musical instrument. It would thus be advantageous to provide the student with a device and method specific for learning comfortable and rapid finger placement for at least the more common chords of a string instrument, such as those further described in the following sections.